As they say, let sleeping logs lie.
June 3, 2022 10:43 AM Subscribe
Embracing the Aesthetic of Dead Things. Many pollinators need decay to thrive, whether in Thailand,
Great Britain, Germany or the U.S.. Pollinator Week starts June 20th! Bonus track: My Garden of a Thousand Bees.
I am so fucking excited about my new house for the fall because I'm going to get to leave the dead leaves exactly where they are, where they can decay and make little microhabitats for all kinds of local fauna. (At my current place, my landlord made me rake up the leaves into neat little piles and throw them away; I own the new one, and I'm slowly in the process of moving from the one to the other. This fall, I'm going to leave some good cover for insects.)
This is the first time I've really had both the soil and the energy to sink into gardening outdoors, and I'm excitedly making plans for a locally tuned "bee lawn" for the areas of my yard that are going to get run through, and thinking about plant options for all the other ones that will be both lovely and useful. I'm going to plant so much clover! This FPP was a good reminder to think about hibernation and nesting spaces in Minnesota, too. I found some neat suggestions for when and how to trim perennial flowers with dead growth to maximize their use as native bee habitat that I might not have thought to go looking for on my own.
Wherever you live, if you're in the US the local university land extension probably has suggestions about what will be most useful for your local ecosystem in terms of gardening choices. I'm in a wildly different climate than I lived in for the rest of my adult life now, and I'm really enjoying learning about what works here, too.
posted by sciatrix at 12:56 PM on June 3, 2022 [10 favorites]
This is the first time I've really had both the soil and the energy to sink into gardening outdoors, and I'm excitedly making plans for a locally tuned "bee lawn" for the areas of my yard that are going to get run through, and thinking about plant options for all the other ones that will be both lovely and useful. I'm going to plant so much clover! This FPP was a good reminder to think about hibernation and nesting spaces in Minnesota, too. I found some neat suggestions for when and how to trim perennial flowers with dead growth to maximize their use as native bee habitat that I might not have thought to go looking for on my own.
Wherever you live, if you're in the US the local university land extension probably has suggestions about what will be most useful for your local ecosystem in terms of gardening choices. I'm in a wildly different climate than I lived in for the rest of my adult life now, and I'm really enjoying learning about what works here, too.
posted by sciatrix at 12:56 PM on June 3, 2022 [10 favorites]
The penstemon and blueberries I planted last year bloomed beautifully this year and attracted tons of bumblebees and has been very encouraging for continuing to find more native plants to attract them.
For other types of bees, if you haven't seen them before, nesting solitary bees are a very interesting experience. You'll be walking through the forest and suddenly see a ton of movement, somewhat like a kicked anthill, in an area of around 10 square yards. As you get closer the movement resolves into hundreds of bees flying low and crawling around. There will also be the classic bee hive noise from all the wings. Best thing about these bees is you can walk right through them and never get stung and be very much ignored.
posted by ockmockbock at 2:21 PM on June 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
For other types of bees, if you haven't seen them before, nesting solitary bees are a very interesting experience. You'll be walking through the forest and suddenly see a ton of movement, somewhat like a kicked anthill, in an area of around 10 square yards. As you get closer the movement resolves into hundreds of bees flying low and crawling around. There will also be the classic bee hive noise from all the wings. Best thing about these bees is you can walk right through them and never get stung and be very much ignored.
posted by ockmockbock at 2:21 PM on June 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
I am so fucking excited about my new house for the fall because I'm going to get to leave the dead leaves exactly where they are, where they can decay and make little microhabitats for all kinds of local fauna
Don't just leave leaves on the ground, because they form an impervious layer of leaves and take a long time (seasons, if not years) to decompose. Especially the big leaves. Only the worst plants come through.
At least that's what they do where I live.
Leave them where they lie and then run them down with a composting mower. That'll get them small enough to improve your soil.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:23 PM on June 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
Don't just leave leaves on the ground, because they form an impervious layer of leaves and take a long time (seasons, if not years) to decompose. Especially the big leaves. Only the worst plants come through.
At least that's what they do where I live.
Leave them where they lie and then run them down with a composting mower. That'll get them small enough to improve your soil.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:23 PM on June 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
Yeah, we leave the leaves, and we prefer that to bagging them up. But we need to get some kind of shredder to chop them up. It's on the list of home stuff to do, and it's been moved down after recent storms have made the trees we love troublesome in other ways, like crushing a section of fence.
posted by cardioid at 7:16 PM on June 3, 2022
posted by cardioid at 7:16 PM on June 3, 2022
I saw an indigenous paper wasp hanging out in my tiny front garden yesterday. Beautiful creature. Now I'm feeling guilty about dead heading some of the flowers.
It's been the best thing about living here, planting an untidy garden and seeing all the little creatures it attracts. Used to just be sand and lawn and devil thorns.
Some of the creatures are invasive European wasps. They're supposed to be very aggressive, but they seem very chill to me. They let me peer at them for ages trying to see what colour their legs are.
They must have a nest somewhere close which is worrying. Probably in the eaves of our house?
posted by Zumbador at 10:06 PM on June 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
It's been the best thing about living here, planting an untidy garden and seeing all the little creatures it attracts. Used to just be sand and lawn and devil thorns.
Some of the creatures are invasive European wasps. They're supposed to be very aggressive, but they seem very chill to me. They let me peer at them for ages trying to see what colour their legs are.
They must have a nest somewhere close which is worrying. Probably in the eaves of our house?
posted by Zumbador at 10:06 PM on June 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
When I lived in Switzerland, there were "Bug Hotels" placed here and there. Boxes containing logs and bricks and things with holes. Places for bugs.
Now, Ha! I got them beat. Sadly, partly due to Ash-Borer insects killing the ash trees in my forest. It costs LOTS of $$ to treat trees for this! Only treated the ashes around the house. Fortunately, I have a wide variety of trees.
Honey bees are scarce, which is very strange to me. Bumble bees are plentiful. I'd delighted to have learned they aren't aggressive. You can even pet them! Sadly, also have carpenter bees. Look like bumble bees, but drill amazing holes in wood (like, the wood of your barn!) to have their families. Between them and wood-peckers, PITA! (wood peckers are in the real estate business, for squirrels).
posted by Goofyy at 2:05 PM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
Now, Ha! I got them beat. Sadly, partly due to Ash-Borer insects killing the ash trees in my forest. It costs LOTS of $$ to treat trees for this! Only treated the ashes around the house. Fortunately, I have a wide variety of trees.
Honey bees are scarce, which is very strange to me. Bumble bees are plentiful. I'd delighted to have learned they aren't aggressive. You can even pet them! Sadly, also have carpenter bees. Look like bumble bees, but drill amazing holes in wood (like, the wood of your barn!) to have their families. Between them and wood-peckers, PITA! (wood peckers are in the real estate business, for squirrels).
posted by Goofyy at 2:05 PM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
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youtube videos of Erika Thompson in action
Story Time: When oil hit 13 bucks a barrel in Houston in the early 1980s I got a job working as a maintenance carpenter for the apartment complex I lived in.*
*I walked into the office telling the manager that I was sorry that I didn't have all the rent money but I was good for it, and was moving my belongings out fast as I could find someplace to store it all. She looked at me, said "Did you say that you're a carpenter?" and I was hired inside five minutes. You couldn't beg borrow or steal a job, it was one hell of a break.
One of the things I ended up having to do was to remove a huge beehive which the bees had laboriously built over some years. I didn't know how to do it correctly, no idea where the queen ended up.
I worked removing that hive an most all of a day. I was covered with bes, my tools were covered with bees, there was honey everywhere. I had no idea that this could happen: I did not get one bee sting. Not even one. I figure that they figured out that "Hey, this guy is just a worker bee, let's give him a break."
posted by dancestoblue at 11:39 AM on June 3, 2022 [9 favorites]